5.1 Collections

Candidates evaluate and select print, non-print, and digital resources using professional selection tools and evaluation criteria to develop and manage a quality collection designed to meet the diverse curricular, personal, and professional needs of students, teachers, and administrators.

Reflection

In the Collection Development course we created
a materials order.The purpose of this assignment was to
select print and non-print sources using professional selection tools and
selection criteria at the elementary level that meets the diverse curricular
and personal needs of students.The
intended outcome was to go through the process of creating a book order using
resources available to librarians to make informed decisions.My order focused on adding more nonfiction
print books and ebooks to support the Common Core Curriculum.I also looked specifically for graphic novels
for struggling readers and bilingual books to appeal to our ELL readers. One strength of this artifact was the requirement to
use professional journals to find books with starred reviews. We want to expose
students to quality literature that will hook them on reading and inspire
life-long habit of reading. Another strength is that we had to provide
copyright information, a summary, and sources of the reviews for the book.If I had to present this order to my
supervisor, they would be able to see the rationale for my choices in an
organized chart.When trying to fill
specific voids in the collection, I learned that some categories are not
available every year, therefore current and reviewed titles are not always
available.During my research I also
learned that Titlewave, the county vendor, has book reviews.This makes the selection process easier for
busy librarians.With limited funding, I
learned to choose books that will benefit my school community by:·Choosing
quality literature that will circulate. ·Choosing
books that support the curriculum.·Choosing
books that reflect student interests. Creating an order by referring to professional
journals can be time consuming. I
learned that there are many resources available to media specialists to aid
them in creating a materials order that will support the diverse needs of their
population. I felt this order was more balanced with the literature that is
needed to sustain my collection as relevant to the population at my school. As I create orders yearly, I want to establish
the habit of checking award lists, and utilizing resources such the School Library Journal book reviews to
choose quality literature for my school community.

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